A Life Forgotten
by LifesVictory
Summary: The love for one woman of two men bring them together when her life is threatened.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** Just some l stuff that I know has been done tons of times before, but there's something appealing about Jack and Sam at the bar scene late at night just talking. Enjoy.

**Summary: **When thought was suspended and reason became no more, they felt truly at home. Sometimes all it takes is a little scotch.

**Characters:** Jack Malone, Sam Spade

**Chapter 1**

The rain hadn't let up by the time Sam dropped her pen in surrender and buried her head into her hands. She could still hear the rain pattering on the roof above her. Sam yawned and checked her watch. 12:34. It was too late to call Martin and explain _again_ why she had missed their dinner date for the second time this week. She couldn't bring herself to drive home.

She leaned back and sighed, considering spending the night right there in her swivel chair. Sam had an extra change of clothes in her cabinet anyway. All she needed was a toothbrush. She smiled at the bleary humor of it and closed her eyes. Sometimes she almost thought she preferred it when she was alone like this at her office. No one left in the building. Just her and the rain.

Sam stretched her body which had become weak from lack of exercise. The job had robbed her of all free time except for what she had now late at night. It was a sacrifice she was willing to make however. Her mother didn't understand it. She wasn't sure she did either, but one way or another she was drawn to this office day after day. Sam closed her eyes again and adjusted her body into a comfortable position.

Sleep seemed like such a perfect solution to all her problems…

"Jesus Christ, Sam!" She jolted awake, nearly toppling off her chair when she heard his voice from her doorway. He was as unkempt and ruffled as she was and shadows encircled his eyes. "What the hell are you still doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," she murmured sleepily. His coat was draped on his arm and his white shirt hung loosely over his belt untucked. "You want to come in?"

"God no," he snorted tiredly with a smile. "I'm not spending a second more in this hell hole, and neither should you." He looked at her reclined position. "You weren't thinking of camping out here tonight, were you?"

"It seemed like a perfectly good idea at the time," she shrugged, sitting up. "I'm trying to avoid Martin, honestly…" Sam shut her mouth, surprised she'd even said that. Jack's eyes flickered almost imperceptibly but resumed their drowsy state. "I don't know _where_ that came from." He leaned against the doorway and picked up her coat from the stand beside him.

"Come on," he instructed gruffly. "I'm taking you home." She grunted. "Come on, now. Up. That's better." He helped her up from the chair and let her slide her shoes back on her feet before draping her coat around her. "Do you have your keys?"

"Yeah," she answered in a yawn, jangling her pocket. "I feel like a five year old." Jack laughed and walked her to the elevator, pressing the button with the nose of his umbrella. "Oh, shit."

"What now?"

"Umbrella." She slapped her forehead and groaned. "I left mine at home. Ah, screw it. I wanted to be wet anyway. I wouldn't have worn my heels if I hadn't." The doors opened and they shuffled inside.

They descended four floors silently, listening to the halfhearted music which still hummed over the PA. Sam held the rail encircling the car and leaned against the wall. She hadn't realized how tired she was until she was forced to walk. Jack's eyes had closed and he hung his head at his chest. The doors slid open and they piled outside into the lobby. The rain pattered on the steps outside and a mist rose above the pavement. Sam could barely see the dark outlines of the old trees surrounding the building.

"Are you ready?" Sam nodded and they plodded outside into the rain. The wetness soaked immediately into her legs though Jack made a valiant effort to shield her with his own umbrella. Halfway to the parking lot, Sam froze, causing Jack to stumble backwards when he realized she'd stopped. "Sam?" She breathed deeply, watching her breath come in puffs of steam from her lips.

Sam stepped out from underneath the umbrella and let the rain hit her fully. She closed her eyes and faced the sky, feeling the water trickle down her skin and cause her tailored suit to cling to her body. She turned in a small circle and laughed softly. Jack moved to her. She braced herself for his quick judgment. However, he said nothing and only watched her in silence. Finally, she looked back down to earth and found his eyes.

"I don't know why I did that," she stammered, cold. "I just needed to, I guess…" He smiled understandingly and draped his coat around her shoulders.

"You don't need to explain," he told her. She smiled, the rain streaming from her face, and came back underneath the umbrella until they reached her car. He held the umbrella above her head until she unlocked the door and was able to slide inside. "Will you be alright to drive?" She nodded. "Okay." He sucked in a deep breath and awkwardly raised his hand before shoving it back in his pocket. "Well, be careful." He smiled and turned to leave.

Sam grabbed his arm and he walked back to her. She looked at him, breathing deeply from the exhilaration of standing in the electrically charged rain. They stood close to one another, listening to the rushing of water hit his umbrella as the rain pounded harder. He looked into her eyes with obvious longing and confusion and his mouth parted slightly. A pain erupted deep inside of him as he opened his mouth to speak the words he wished he could incinerate as soon as they left his lips, but knew he had no choice.

"Go home, Sam," he told her, his voice threatening to break from strain. She looked up at him with dizzying brown eyes, her eyebrows crowning them in a heartbreaking expression. His heart pounded furiously inside of him as he repeated the words again. They killed him. "Go home."

Sam's throat constricted tightly and she swallowed hard. His face was almost totally masked in shadow. She knew then. It was over. It hit her like a bullet to the abdomen and she felt sick, but she knew. She slowly released his arm and looked down. She didn't look up again, and instead sank into her car, shut the door, and revved the engine into life.

* * *

The pain he felt as she pulled out from the lot was incredible. It tore through his whole self, gripping his chest in some mystical bind. Her blonde head disappeared into darkness as her car sped off on the highway. He leaned against the car next to where she had been parked, suddenly feeling very weak and very old. Jack fingered his umbrella and looked up its wooden neck. Then, very slowly, he lowered it to the pavement, let it drop, held his face up to the sky, and let the rain pour down upon him.

* * *

Sam wiped the uncontrollable tears from her eyes and focused on the wet highway. She lived only fifteen minutes away, but the drive tonight seemed as if the farther she drove, the tighter the knot in her chest grew. Damn him, she thought desperately. Damn him for being right. She wanted one night without thought, without judgment. A cry tore from her lips and she banged the top of her steering wheel in frustration. Why did it still kill her as much as it did? It was as if the affair had happened yesterday. She was supposed to be over it. She was seeing Martin. She was almost _engaged_ to Martin.

A car honked its horn loudly behind her and she realized she had veered into its lane where it was attempting to pass her. She sniffed loudly and saw an exit through the rain pelting against her window. She needed to pull over. She couldn't drive in this weather, in this condition. Sam drove off the road into a small parking lot behind a store her cousin owned. Sam stepped out of the car, holding her cell phone out in front of her. Suddenly, she threw it in the back seat of the car and walked to the hood of the car. She lifted herself onto the hood and laid back against its warmth. Then, she closed her eyes. Peace.

* * *

An awful feeling hit Jack as he pulled off of the highway and made his way back to the apartment he had rented to comply to Marie's wishes of separation. It spread through his gut like a poison and made him freeze in the parking garage. _Sam_. He flipped open his cell phone and dialed her number. However, his finger hovered on the "send" button. He shouldn't. He should let it go, let her go. She was with Martin. He would take care of her. It was his responsibility now, he had no right. He looked down at his phone again. No. He had to call her. There was something wrong.

Jack held the phone to his ear and listened carefully. It rang once, twice, thrice, four times. No one answered. He redialed and called again and still no one answered. She probably had it inside her coat somewhere. It wasn't a problem. It wasn't his problem. Give them their privacy. Jack gripped his steering wheel, thinking. He couldn't. _Sam_. He shouldn't have let her drive when she was like that, in this rain.

The phone rang once, twice, three times….

"Hello?"

"Martin, it's Jack," he said, taking a breath. "There's something you should know…"

* * *

Martin threw off the coverlet of his bed as soon as he got off the phone with Jack. He jammed his legs into a pair of jeans and grabbed a jacket. A blind panic seized him. Sam was lost somewhere in the rain, alone, and not answering her cell phone. He grabbed his keys and kicked open the front door. He heard the emergency flood warning alarm echoing through the apartment from the radio, but ignored it. He had to get to Sam. Unlocking his car door, he threw himself inside.

* * *

Jack put his car in reverse and spun out of the driveway. He tried to think of where she'd go, where she'd run. He vaguely remembered her talking about an aunt who she used to run to when she was young and needed shelter, but doubted she'd go there now. The name stuck in his mind. Dalloway. She'd spoken of the name before, but when? He drove back to the highway and quickly aligned himself on the route to her apartment. He would find her. He had to. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:** Thanks for all the helpful feedback! This one isn't going to be too long, I can tell, but I hope yall like it. I'm enjoying working on the storyline. I mean, let's have some pity for Martin. I cringe when he's with Sam, but he's a sweet guy. Let him down gently, eh? Thanks. LV

**Don't own any of this, please don't sue :-)

* * *

****Chapter 2**

Jack put his car in reverse and spun out of the driveway. He tried to think of where she'd go, where she'd run. He vaguely remembered her talking about an aunt who she used to run to when she was young and needed shelter, but doubted she'd go there now. The name stuck in his mind. Dalloway. She'd spoken of the name before, but when? He drove back to the highway and quickly aligned himself on the route to her apartment. He would find her. He had to.

It grew harder and harder to drive through the river of water that began to flood the roads. Jack's window wipers slapped frantically across his vision as he squinted through the rain and he flicked on his bright lights. A sinking feeling in his stomach spread throughout his body, but he refused to acknowledge it. _Sam, where the hell are you? And why does that name 'Dalloway' keep coming back to my mind?_ Jack screeched to a halt and slapped the steering wheel.

"Dalloway's on Eighteenth!" He murmured breathlessly before speeding off, his wheels hydroplaning on the slick surface. Why didn't he think of it before?

* * *

"For God's sake, Sam, pick up!" Martin muttered desperately into his cell phone that rang at his ear. He drove past her condominium and searched for her car in the garage and found that it was empty. Martin parked in the drive and leapt out of his car. The rain immediately drenched him as he ran up to her door and banged on it several times with his fist.

"Sam!" he bellowed. "Sam, are you there?" He rang the doorbell fruitlessly and turned around in frustration. Her tall figure flashed through his mind and he concentrated on her face. He blanched. He saw every curve of her body, every strand of blonde hair, but he could not bring her face out of the shadow that it was cast in. Martin ran a hand through his sopping wet hair and forced the thought from his mind. He padded down the condo steps and got back into his car which was still running. _Where would she go at a time like this?_ Wryly, he realized that this was something Sam would never come to him of all people about.

It was like she was running from him.

* * *

Sam could feel nothing in her body any more. She reveled in the numbness that spread from her fingertips to her toes. She lay sprawled on the hood of her car, clothes and body completely saturated with rain. Her hair clung like a second skin to her neck and she no longer felt the cold that had stung her at first. The rain covered her like an enveloping blanket.

Her lips moved slowly, curved in a morose smile.

"_And reaching up my hand to try, I screamed to feel it touch the sky…"_ Sam murmured, reciting her favorite poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay. She stared with her eyes half open at the drops that fell at her like gentle daggers . "_I screamed, and lo, Infinity came down and settled over me…." _

The street lamp which had illuminated the empty parking lot of her cousin's restaurant suddenly flickered and went out. Sam shivered.

She was bathed completely in darkness.

* * *

He was only five miles away. Five miles. It may as well have been five hundred. With every inch that his car crept along the flooded street he had to wait ten seconds while a tumultuous gush of rain poured over him, then sporadically let up. _Hang in there, Sam_. Jack begged silently, his whole body tensed over the arch of his steering wheel. _Just hang in there._ He glided under a stoplight which swung in the rain like a glowing red eye. Only a few more blocks. Sam's cousin, he remembered, owned a family restaurant called _Dalloway's_. She had told him that when she was little, she'd hide out behind it so her family couldn't find her. It was her sanctuary. Some things never change.

Jack pleaded to God that she was still in her car. The downpour would be her death if she was exposed to it for too long. He passed two street signs that read Fifteenth St. and Sixteenth St. as the roads steadily worsened. Jack wondered if Martin had found her already. He clenched his jaw unconsciously and drove on.

* * *

Martin sat, disgusted, in the parking log of a gas station with his hands limp between his legs.

He had no idea where to look for her. Not one fucking clue. She could be sitting in her favorite café, the favorite café that he didn't know about, having a mocha. She could be at her favorite restaurant, also unknown to him, or parked under her favorite part of Central Park, foreign as well. Martin smothered his tired features with his hand and stared at the rain still streaming down his window. He knew nothing about the woman he was sleeping with. The woman he was in love with. She'd never told him; he'd never asked.

Martin kicked the car door open and ran to the run down Mini Mart next to the gas pumps. He nodded to the fortyish woman with hot magenta nail decals and bought a coffee which tasted like burnt toast. He leaned against a refrigerator stacked with six-pack upon six-pack of canned beer. Martin wondered if Jack had found her already. He clenched his jaw cynically and let the toxic liquid fight its way down his throat.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Jack watched the rain flood his windshield wipers as they desperately tried to serve their purpose. It was useless. He was sitting in a pool of water that rose almost three-quarters up his tires, and his motor was stalled. It wasn't as if he was worried about a collision though he was parked in the middle of an intersection (the roads were deserted). His mind spun as he tried to rev his engine to life again. _Sam._ Jack was directly underneath the street sign that read Seventeenth Street. The engine coughed and weakly then was quiet again. He was stuck.

A sense of determination settled over him. He needed to get to Sam, nothing else mattered. She could be hurt, or worse. Jack didn't want to think about it. Grinding his teeth together, he kicked open his door and tumbled out of his car. Immediately half of his body was soaked in water, both from the lake accumulating around his legs and from the waterfall plummeting from the sky. He pulled his coat tighter around his shoulders then trudged forwards in a painstakingly slow run. The force of the water pushed against him like human arms, holding him back.

One block. That was all he needed. He could see the watery outline of a flickering, neon sign reading _Dalloway's_. He could see it, but he couldn't reach it. Jack leaned against the wall of a brick building when he reached the sidewalk, panting with his hands on his knees. His body was weak and shivering from the anxiety of the evening, and it ached to collapse but he fought on.

* * *

Martin crushed his Styrofoam coffee cup in his hands and threw it in a filthy trash bin. He could tell the woman behind the counter was flirting with him. She batted long, clumpy eyelashes at him and popped her gum noisily. He needed somewhere to sit and think, although he doubted what little service his brain could provide.

He turned and asked the woman gruffly if she knew of a coffee shop nearby that was open this time of night. She perked up and smiled and said yes. There was an old fifties diner on Eighteenth with some Irish name.

Martin blinked. "What did you say its name was?"

"I don't remember exactly," she giggled, leaning forward so that her sunburned chest was exposed to him. "It was Irish, though. Did you know I'm Irish? On my father's side. That's all I really know about him, anyways. He left when I was eight. Said he had some other family…  
"Listen, it's really important that I know the name," he interrupted her, setting his hands on the scratched glass counter. "Please." She popped her gum with a loud crack before sighing.

"I think it's Gallow's or Dallow's or something—" He slammed his hands on the table loudly.

"_Dalloway's_!" Martin exclaimed loudly, causing the girl to jump. She nodded breathlessly eyed him suspiciously. "Thanks." He ripped out his walled and shoved a bill into her tip jar. It was only after he left that she noticed a grinning picture of Benjamin Franklin on its front.

* * *

Jack finally reached higher ground when he reached the restaurant, and maneuvered past the chain link fence at the entrance. The neon-green _Dalloway's _sign flashed emerald hues on his wet skin as he ran past the building, bellowing hoarsely into the downpour.

"Sam!" he shouted as loudly as he could, "Sam, are you there? Sam! Answer me!" Silence echoed through the front of the lot. He spun around wildly and ran behind the diner, clutching onto the brick wall for strength. Jack's legs nearly gave out in relief when he saw a black four-door parked near the trees that were aligned next to the cracked-pavement. He could barely see a form splayed across the hood of the car, but the darkness nearly blinded him.

Jack ran with his hands extended in front of him through the rain until he felt his fingers collide with the cold exterior of a car door. He felt towards the hood of the car with trembling fingers and felt completely saturated fabric underneath them. Jack moved his fingers slowly upwards and drew them across deathly cold skin.

"Sam," he whispered, his voice breaking. Jack turned her pale face, illuminated in the darkness, towards him and felt her pulse. It was faint, hardly there, but there nonetheless.

He grasped her shoulders and hoisted her to an upright position before scooping her into his arms. Then, he shook off his coat and wrapped it around her. It was wet, but not soaked, and she needed all the warmth she could get.

Jack felt in his pocket for his cell phone to call 911. He had just dialed the number when he heard a whisper almost completely lost in the drumming of rain, but he heard it anyway. Jack brought his face close to hers to hear her.

"_I would I were alive again to kiss the fingers of the rain…_" Jack froze, his brows knit in confusion. Her lips moved soundlessly, but the words echoed through his mind.

"What are you saying, Sam? What are you trying to tell me?" He murmured. "Sam, speak to me, sweetheart…" Sam coughed, and spat up some water that had lodged in her lungs. Her eyes were closed but she spoke again, louder.

"_To drink into my eyes the shine of every slanting silver line_…" Jack's heart was bursting with frustration. What was she telling him? What did she want from him? He was helpless as the woman shivered beneath his hands. "_For soon the shower will be done…"_ Her head nodded off to the side, and Jack knew she had slipped into unconsciousness again. His eyes searched her face desperately, but nothing relieved his panic.

"What are you telling me…" Jack murmured anxiously, smoothing her wet hair against her face.

" 'Renascence.'" The voice made him jump. Jack spun around and saw a dark shadow with its hands in its pockets standing behind him.

"What?" Jack panted.

Martin stepped into the light of the flickering green light. "It's from 'Renascence.' Millay wrote it." He took a shaking breath that he prayed was well-hidden. "It's her favorite poem."

The two men held a powerful silence. "Martin, I'm sorry. I didn't think she wasn't alright to drive. I thought she'd go straight home…" Martin shook his head with a melancholy smile.

"It's you, Jack," Martin said, his shoulders slumped in acceptance.

Jack swallowed. "Just take her home, Martin. She'll wake up and she won't remember any of this…"

The echoing of faraway sirens thrummed in the thick atmosphere, and both men turned towards its source. Jack could barely see red and blue lights flashing in the distance. Martin crossed the distance between them and stood beside Jack. He looked down at Sam and cupped her cheek with his hand, kissing her forehead. A knot was forming in his throat.

Jack watched her quiet face and a calm settled on his mind. He had long prayed for this day, though he had known of its impossibility. All the jealousy and bitterness that had grown inside of him had suddenly disappeared. He watched Martin quietly as he took a step back from the woman and nodded at Jack.

"Don't lose her," Martin murmured, his voice unsteady. "She doesn't know how much you love her." Jack looked up at Martin with a heavy expression.

"There's so many complexities," he said, appearing to Martin amusingly as a nervous young man for the first time in love, "I don't know how it will work…there's Marie, and my kids, and her life, and….its so complicated."

Martin draped his coat over his shoulder, his wet shirt clinging to his frame. "Actually, it's quite simple. You love her, she loves you. End of story."

"I tried before.."

"Try again." Jack looked down at Sam and nodded. "Good-bye, Jack." The sirens blared louder as the lights poured down the street. Jack saw Martin's retreating back for a moment more before it disappeared. Sam moved beside him and he took her face in his hands. Her eyes open slightly.

"Jack?" She mumbled weakly. His lips twisted into a fragile smile as he kissed her ice cold hands. The medics streamed out of the ambulance and ran towards her. "Don't leave, Jack."

"I won't," he told her, keeping her hand in his as they lifted her onto a stretcher. "I promise."

* * *

Martin watched the ambulances pull out of the drive with a quiet expression on his face. Just like that, she was gone, though he realized she was never really his to begin with.

His heart, like the rest of his body, was numb, but he felt the rain on his skin. Martin looked up into the sky; it was letting up. The storm had passed. Slowly, the sirens died out and the lights faded into darkness. He turned and walked back the way he had come. He suddenly had a craving for a very strong, very dark cup of coffee, and he knew just where to look.

Finis.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Thank you for all the wonderful reviews and feedback I received for this story! I enjoyed writing it, as short as it may be. I will try to update my other work as soon as I can. Thanks again! --LV 


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